Eeek! Did I make a mistake?

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z5556792

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[Windows Vista 32-bit @ Q6600 @ Abit IP35-E with 2 GB RAM]: I had the system overclocked for much of 2007-8 while I was gaming heavily. The system (including RAM) proved stable. This year, the computer has been used mostly for video editing and HD viewing. I haven't played many games recently, so the Q6600 has been scaled back to its factory settings for the past six months.

Today, I replaced the older 2 GB of GEIL RAM with 4 GB of Corsair RAM. I was surprised to see my Windows Experience Index go down from 5.8 to 5.6. :mad: Then I realized the cause: the older Geil RAM was rated 5-5-5-15 @ 1.8v, while the newer Corsair RAM is rated for 5-5-5-18 @ 1.9v.

Should I keep the new RAM? Or should I revert back to the old ones? I have three worries here:
  • Overall, will 2 GB of 5-5-5-15 RAM outperform 4 GB of 5-5-5-18 RAM?
  • Will the Corsair 5-5-5-18 prevent my Q6600 from overclocking again in the future?
  • If I don't overclock, will I be able to mix together all 6 GB of RAM when I upgrade to Windows 7 next year?

Any advice is appreciated!
 
Windows experience rating is garbage... I wouldn't base any purchasing decisions on that...

And yea, the only way to find out if your overclocking is limited... is to try it... ?

I have 8GB of DDR1000 G.skill running at 3.0ghz on my Q6600... going from 4 to 8 didn't make a difference either.

I'd buy more ram if you needed it, not "just because"... although I think 4GB should be the minimum in today's builds just because it's so cheap... I paid $250 for 2GB of DDR2 667 when it was first out, then paid $100 for 4GB 1000 a year later, and then $40 for the same set of 4GB about 9 months after that...
 
You're fine. It's 4GB of DDR2800, right? If so, then it really won't make a difference. Your machine will like the 4GB regardless. And the only time you will see a real difference in the two is in synthetic benchmarks and (obviously) the Windows Experience Rating. I wouldn't sweat it if I were you :D
 
why dont try to tighten that those new timings a bit. lower the 18 to 15 and see if proves stable via memtest. my memory is rated to run 5-5-5-15 but im running it at 4-4-4-12 with no issues and perfectly stable.
 
Care to give us a link to the RAM as well? I can look it up and see the chip it is based on. If you're lucky enough to have Micron D9's (many chips are D9s) then you can OC the hell out of them, and it will do 4-4-4-15 like it was made for it. And not to mention at 1200 MHz :eek:
 
Thanks for the advice, guys.

*Blazestorm & *haadij404 --- the reason I'm reluctant to try overclocking the system right now is because I don't have proper cooling. A few months ago, I moved everything to a smaller, quieter computer case in an effort to minimize the noise. And I took out my noisy, giant CPU fan and replaced it with a quieter one. So my system isn't properly set up for OC right now. I don't really intend to OC the system again until I upgrade my graphics card (which may not happen at all).

*Arcanide --- thanks for the reassurance. I also think the 4 GB of memory is probably better than 2 GB of slightly faster memory. Especially for a memory hog like Vista. This is the new RAM I bought: http://shop1.frys.com/product/5611731
 
Thank you for the link. The trouble is, those sets of memory have had about 6 revisions, and after the 4th revision, they have used cheaper, less OC-able memory instead of the good microns. Any chance you could find the revision for me??

http://www.houseofhelp.com/v2/showthread.php?t=77173

If you look at the second example on that page, you will see your memory. If you could tell the the version that it has under XMS number (v1.2 in the example) then I could tell you what you can probably get away with :D
 
Arcanide said:
If you could tell the the version that it has under XMS number (v1.2 in the example) then I could tell you what you can probably get away with :D
Click to expand...



This is what was printed on the memory label:

CM2x2048-6400C5
5-5-5-18
XMS2-6400
1.80V ver1.2

Since I just bought these brand new yesterday, I would have to guess that these are the lower quality ones. I'm hoping you'll tell me I'm wrong though, hehe. :)
 
Yeah, those are v1.2 so that means you got yourself a pair of Microns. Start trying to tighten the timings, and see what you get. Slowly start to push them up testing with Memtest along the way. Good Luck, and congrats on the Microns :D

EDIT:
Woops! Sorry about that, apparently I looked at the wrong thing. These are of a different model than what I initially thought. These have a QIMONDA IC, so I have no idea whether or not they will OC well.
 
Thanks for your help --- I may try to OC these eventually. But I'm quite pleased with how well 4 GB of RAM is working on the Q6600 right now at default settings. So even if these won't OC, I think I'll keep 'em.
 
Corsair and others haven't been using Micron ICs for a while now I think (there seemed to be a lot of quality issues at one point, and Micron was moving on to DDR3 production... that happened towards the end of their original DDR stuff too)...

Anyway, even if you were comparing 2GB @ 4-4-4-w/e timings vs 4GB @ 5-5-5 you'd still be far better off with the 4GB than with the 2GB... With a C2Q timings just aren't gonna have that big an impact, 'specially small differences, 2-3% at best. Having 4GB instead of 2GB on the other hand will make a huge difference when multi-tasking and gaming. You'll be able to Alt+Tab out of games much much faster, Windows will cache more stuff so some programs will open faster, you'll access the swap file a lot less when multi-tasking, etc. etc.

As far and mixing and matching the sticks, that's very hit or miss and no one can really predict it unless they've had first hand experience with that exact revision of those two exact sets of RAM and that motherboard... Best bet is to try it, 4GB's pretty decent though, Windows 7 shouldn't use any more RAM than Vista does (and not too much more than XP).
 
Impulse said:
Anyway, even if you were comparing 2GB @ 4-4-4-w/e timings vs 4GB @ 5-5-5 you'd still be far better off with the 4GB than with the 2GB... With a C2Q timings just aren't gonna have that big an impact, 'specially small differences, 2-3% at best. Having 4GB instead of 2GB on the other hand will make a huge difference when multi-tasking and gaming.

As far and mixing and matching the sticks, that's very hit or miss
Click to expand...



Thanks for the input, Impulse. What you wrote is exactly what I've noticed in practice. Doubling the RAM has certainly made Vista run a lot smoother. There's less grinding on my hard drives. I'm sure I lost some amount of fps in games due to the slower RAM, but I doubt I'd notice it without running a benchmark.
 
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